The ladies in general tend to receive lower PCS than in the other disciplines: for instance, in 2012 Carolina Kostner won Worlds without getting a single component score over 8.4 in either program (and none above 8 in the SP), while Patrick Chan got high 8s/low 9s, and the ice dancers are close to 10 at times (unjustifiably close, in some cases). That was really perplexing, and though the ladies did get higher PCS at 2013 Worlds, I fail to see why they're not in the ballpark of what the top pairs and ice dancers get.

I'm having a tough time coming up with specific examples, especially as there are quite a few skaters whom I haven't seen live. Akiko Suzuki's marks tend to be low at times for what she does, and I thought there were times last season when the judges could have gone a bit higher with James/Cipres. Jonathan Cassar's weaker jumps really hurt his PCS when he competed.

This thread looks like it was made to mention Akiko Suzuki... apart from her, I'm not to sure. Maybe Kozuka would be another candidate, his skating skills are to die for and his SP this last season was amazing.
And then there are probably a lot of unknown skaters or newbies, that just don't get any love because they don't have any reputation.

Wait, what!?! I thought the new system was supposed to do away with reputation judging.

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Well, it can decrease the degree of reputation judging, but I don't think you can do away with it entirely as long as you're dealing human beings. Even 100% honest well-meaning judges will be unconsciously influenced by reputation. And by skate order.

Well, it can decrease the degree of reputation judging, but I don't think you can do away with it entirely as long as you're dealing human beings. Even 100% honest well-meaning judges will be unconsciously influenced by reputation. And by skate order.

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And also by how many years the skater has been in international competitions. That's not always the same as age. Akiko probably suffers from breaking into the Japanese team so late in her career.
People say Kiira gets beauty PCS, but she was just as beautiful under 20 and her scores were a lot lower. It's age/perseverance PCS.

Even though it seems Kiira gets the SWP (Skating While Pretty) PCS boost, she really does have nice PCS. Good speed, clean crisp edges, lovely presentation, programs and interpretation...her TR are decent but not great. I think her easier jump content pisses people off and they feel she doesn't deserve to get high components for lower level technical content but that's the way the system works.

I think Akiko is consistently undermarked (duh) across nearly every field. I think Christina deserved a slight hike in her PCS particularly in the SP last season for her CH and IN. Zijun got low PCS until her FS at worlds; after that her marks magically jumped into the 7s instead of the mid 6s.

I think a number of skaters are overmarked in areas but I won't go into details...

PCS are still a crock of sh*t and are used as a way to boost/hold down skaters...

It's impossible to make a sweeping argument about all components and all competitions of a particular skater. A skater may get the SS score he/she deserves, but not the IN score. Or a skater may deserve her/his component scores at a certain event for a certain program, but not other events and/or other programs.

A good example is 2010 US Nationals men's free skate. Ryan Bradley got 7-8 across the board. 8 may be well deserved for performance/execution and choreography, but 7 was too high for his skating skills.

I don't think there is a widespread conspiracy to "keep someone down." Hence anyone is hard pressed to identify more than one or two skaters who are widely considered undermarked for components. It is more apparent, on the other hand, that Patrick Chan is often overmarked for IN and CH, but marked correctly (ie, according to the rules) for SS, TR, and PE, while Akiko is often undermarked for IN and CH, but the other components are usually marked within reason. Kozuka may deserve higher SS scores, but his performance and interpretation are frequently awkward and lack a freedom of movements or connection/projection with the audience and therefore deserve the low P/E and IN scores.

One cannot make a claim of undeserving component scores for every competition and every program. A usually excellent skater can have subpar choreography and/or performance at a specific event and should be penalized accordingly.

The criticism of reputation judging is valid. A subpar program and/or performance of a usually reliable "star" skater SHOULD be penalized as heavily as the faces unknown to international judges. The system needs to make an effort to better minimize reputation judging (probably unintentional in most cases).

I agree with Suzuki but c'mon, Kostner? She is undoubtedly the queen of PCS, the only one can surpass Kostner's PCS is Yuna's, but I even doubt it, if Kosnter clean no one know what will happen

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I dunno. Zemgirl's point is interesting - that despite her often intriguing choreography, strong interpretation skills and the like, she's a mid to high 8 skater. Objectively, it just strikes me as weird that the "queen of PCS" can't crack 9s, but someone like Kevin Reynolds can score 8's.